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Ask HN: My next project is guaranteed to be “attacked”. How should I prepare?
In 2023, I'm going to be releasing a novel that I've spent about seven years on. I haven't decided on a date, and I might "stealth launch" it for security reasons, but it'll probably be summer or fall when it comes together.
Over the past decade, I have angered an inordinate number of petty people in a particular industry. Some of this was my fault, much of it wasn't. It doesn't really matter at this point. I can never work in that industry again, which is fine by me. I would like to forget them, but they won't forget me. I know for a fact that some of them will try to "attack" my book launch, even though they gain nothing in doing so. A friend of mine got access to some privileged communications (no details, obviously) and there is discussion of the matter, though it's not sufficient to predict what tactics they'll use.
I don't know exactly what they plan to do. Raising a cancel mob is one possibility. Spamming Goodreads with negative reviews is another one. (I don't want to get in the way of people posting critical or negative reviews in good faith. If they've actually read the book, everyone has the right to post an honest review. But 40 negative reviews from one brigade is something I'd like to stop.) Or, they may try to invalidate positive reviews somehow. They're almost certain to publicize embarrassing stuff I did twenty years ago that still follows me. I don't think these people have any pull at Amazon that would suffice to get the book algorithmically penalized, but I can't be sure.
I recognize that all of this sounds extremely paranoid to someone who has never interacted with these people. Why would they "attack" a self-published book where the author's lucky to sell a couple thousand copies in the first year? (This is a long play. Word of mouth is a slow exponential. As long as the numbers grow, mediocre sales in Year 1 are OK, even expected.) Again, these people are bizarre and petty and very, very bored and you'll just have to trust that I know these people better than you do. (If I named them, some of you would probably agree with me.) They have done more degenerate things than anything I am describing here.
Obviously, some of this is out of my control. I'd even give it a 50% chance that this "attack" is so incompetent or threadbare, it barely merits notice. (The book might flop on its own. Many do.) Still, I want to be prepared for this in case it does. I want to be prepared for cancel mobs, because they tried to raise one against my real name in 2015. I want to be prepared for negative review brigades, because I've been hit by downvote brigades 40-thick (you can never prove it, but when a comment goes from +18 to -22 in five minutes, you know) on Reddit. What should I do in the next 6-12 months to defend myself, in the event that the worst occurs? I'd like to get people in the press, preemptively, on my side; at the same time, I recognize that to everyone outside of a particular industry, what I'm describing sounds laughably improbable. I don't think I can just call people at the New York Times and say, "Hey, I'm releasing a novel you've never heard of that will probably be attacked by people you've covered, and yadda yadda yadda." The world maybe should be that open, but it's not.
- prohobo 4y agoYou ignore it and enjoy the free publicity. People who read the book, assuming it sheds light on these people, will figure it out. The biggest issue I can see is review bombing, so you can try warning various platforms that it might be targeted, though most of them already have systems in place to try to prevent it or will ignore your pleas. IMO, the only thing you can really do there is market your book in other ways, and maybe ask some bloggers to pick up the story if you do get publicly attacked. A lot of people will search a controversial subject and read blog posts about it to see what the issue is. If some of those articles can convince them that the book or author are important and are being cancelled for any reason other than merit they'll be more likely to check it out.
- zneiposh 4y agoThank you for your response. Alas, I think they're going to be able to find ways to make the "free publicity" harmful. These people are petty, but they're not stupid. I'm expecting GPT-written negative reviews (which will drown out the positive ones) and various chatter on social media that redirects any discussion of the work to discussion of the author and what he may or may not have done (nothing illegal, but stupid shit that's really embarrassing) 20 years ago. I know they're going to try to raise a cancel mob. They did it in 2015 over my (ill-considered) use of one word. I was using it as a regular trash insult, but a bunch of people got paid $75 a post to misrepresent my intentions on social media, and it ended up costing me job opportunities. I used to believe that "there's no such thing as bad publicity", but that isn't true. If you get a negative review in good faith by, say, the New York Times, that's not going to hurt you financially at all. (Emotionally, it might.) Critical or even negative publicity that comes in good faith does tend to help you in the long run. On the other hand, if you get 100 low-effort negative reviews on Goodreads by people who've never read the book, your average drops into 1.x or 2.x territory and you're done. To the rest of the world, it just looks like you wrote a bad book. And if someone drums up a cancel mob, it can get really bad really quick. The book isn't about the people are going to attack it. It's an unrelated novel. They're going to attack it because they're vindictive, not because there's anything in there for them to fear. They might be afraid that if the book succeeds and I become famous, I use my "platform" to go after them in the future. (It isn't really my plan, but I understand their paranoia, as I must sound a bit paranoid myself.) The book itself isn't going to "shed light on" them, though, as that's not its purpose. I'd rather forget entirely that they exist. I'm playing defense here because offense isn't really a possibility. Some of these people, I know exactly who they are. Most of them are people who work for those people (or who did) whose names I don't even know. One of the guys who was stupid enough to attack me under his real name is some dork in Seattle (I'm on the east coast) who claims to have worked with me even though we've never met.